AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2017 - 52

PILOT BRIEFING
AVIATION HISTORY |

'Founder of the jet age'
Ever hear of Sir Frank Whittle?
BY JUAN MERKT

MEANWHILE, IN GERMANY...

Whittle joins counterpart in hall of fame

The first turbojet-powered aircraft to fly, the He-178, took off in 1939
with an HeS.3B engine designed by German scientist Hans von Ohain.
The National Aviation Hall of Fame inducted von Ohain in 1990.
52 | AOPA PILOT October 2017

of the highly successful Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star,
the first U.S. production jet fighter.
British and German jet-propelled aircraft appeared
during the latter stages of World War II but were too late
to influence the outcome of the war. The German jet pioneer, Hans von Ohain (sometimes credited with being
co-inventor of the jet engine) is quoted as saying: "If the
British experts had had the vision to back Whittle, World
War II would probably never have happened. Hitler
would have doubted the Luftwaffe's ability to win."
Whittle came to live in the United States in 1976
and died on August 8, 1996, at his home in Columbia,
Maryland.
On Saturday, October 28, 2017, the National
Aviation Hall of Fame will induct Sir Frank Whittle
for his contribution as the "founder of the jet
age." Whittle will be recognized at the Fifty-Fifth
Enshrinement Ceremony in Fort Worth Alliance
Airport, Fort Worth, Texas.
JUAN MERKT is chair of the Department of Aeronauti-

cal Science at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in
Prescott, Arizona.

WEB

www.nationalaviation.org

COURTESY INSTITUTE OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS IN LONDON

ON APRIL 12, 1937, at the testing site in
the British Thomson-Houston factory in
England, Frank Whittle cracked open a valve
sending fuel into the combustion chamber
of his newly created turbojet engine, the
Whittle Unit (WU). As he recorded, "for
a second or two the speed of the engine
increased slowly and then, with a rising
shriek like an air-raid siren, the speed began
to rise rapidly, and large patches of red heat
became visible on the combustion chamber." The alarming sound and visible flames
shooting out of the tailpipe sent his assistants running in all directions. Whittle had just become the first person to
successfully build and run a turbojet engine, designed to propel aircraft at
speeds and altitudes never seen before. The jet era had begun. Surprisingly,
the event went almost unnoticed.
Born in 1907, Whittle entered the Royal Air Force as an apprentice in 1923.
In 1928, as part of the graduation requirements, he wrote his thesis Future
Developments in Aircraft Design. Whittle proved by calculation that the turbine had the potential to be a prime mover for aero-propulsion.
By late 1929, Whittle concluded that jet propulsion derived from a gas
turbine was the logical way forward for high-speed, high-altitude flight. He
submitted his idea to the Air Ministry, but it was rejected as impractical. No
secrecy was applied when he patented his idea in 1930, so it entered the public domain the following year and migrated worldwide. In 1936, Whittle
secured financial backing and, with RAF support, began development of
his engine. He also patented proposals for the turbofan and afterburner.
Not until 1939 did the British authorities finally recognize the
potential of the technology and gave support for Whittle to develop a
flight-worthy engine (W1). This was tested in the Gloster E28/39, the
first British jet aircraft to fly, in 1941.
A W1 engine and plans for the W2 were brought to the U.S. and
General Electric began development. In 1942, Whittle came to assist and,
on October 2, the first U.S. jet, the Bell XP-59A, was flown, powered by a
GE version of the Whittle engine. This development then led to the birth

http://www.nationalaviation.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2017